Hindus lured with inducements, manipulated with religious texts to convert to Christianity in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh

Case ID : d327097 | Location : Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Mon, 12 January, 2026

Case ID : d327097

Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh, India

12 January, 2026

Hindus lured with inducements, manipulated with religious texts to convert to Christianity in Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh

Predatory Proselytisation

Conversion/ attempts to convert by inducement

Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination

Conversion of minor

Pattern of targeting Hindus

Case Summary

In Karsaha village, Kannauj district, Uttar Pradesh, Hindus were targeted for forced religious conversions by a Christian missionary group. The victims were converted through inducements, manipulation, and brainwashing tactics using Christian texts. A church functioned in the village without requisite permission, and religious conversion activities took place, where Hindu women, men, and children were influenced to convert from Hinduism to Christianity through inducements. The conversion activities resulted in 45 villagers converting at a later stage, taking the total number of villagers converted to 245. The impact of the conversion activities prompted intervention after complaints were filed on 8 December 2025. A written complaint was submitted by Annubabu, a resident of Lohamad village. Another complaint connected to the same activities was filed by Bajrang Dal district coordinator Annu at Thathiya police station. Following the complaints, police registered a case under Sections 3 and 5(1) of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, against the accused, Pannalal (pastor), Vidyasagar, and Umashankar Dohare, residents of Karsaha village under Thathiya police station. Superintendent of Police Vinod Kumar intervened and constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) comprising Additional Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar, Circle Officer Tirwa Kulveer, Thathiya police station in-charge Devesh Kumar and two sub-inspectors. The SIT recorded that Pannalal and his associates carried out conversions by offering money. The investigation recorded that the conversion activities were linked to the Navkanti Society, which operated a nationwide network. Money was transferred to bank accounts after conversions, and the three accused received training from the Navkanti Society. The investigation further recorded that a lawyer residing in Kanpur and an individual named David from Jhansi transferred money to the accounts of the accused, following which the police conducted raids to locate the perpetrators. During police action, Christian religious books, cartoons, pamphlets, grape juice, and a piano were recovered from the unauthorised church and the houses of the accused. The investigation recorded that children were connected to Christianity through piano lessons and that cartoon-based books were distributed to them. Acting on specific information, police arrested Pannalal, Vidyasagar, and Umashankar Dohare near the Khairnagar canal bridge in the Thathiya area on 13 January 2026. The accused were produced before a court the following day and were sent to jail on a 14-day judicial remand. Reports also highlighted that the accused, in an earlier instance, on 7 December 2025, were arrested along with Ajab Singh of Etawah for being involved in forced conversion efforts. The four accused in this case were presented in court. Due to a lack of evidence, the court rejected the remand of all four. Due to this, the police released all of them. However, after being released, three out of the four, Pannalal, Vidyasagar, and Umashankar, resumed their predatory conversion activities.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been documented under the selected primary category: Predatory proselytisation. Under this, the selected secondary category is: Conversion/attempts to convert by inducement. Predatory Proselytisation is not just limited to threat, harassment, force, and violence, but it also has contours of stealth. In several cases, the Hindu victim is exploited to convert, with non-Hindus taking advantage of their poverty. In such cases, the Hindu victim who is suffering financially is offered monetary benefits, including lucrative offers for jobs, health treatment, education, etc, to induce the victim into changing his/her religion. In such cases, the religious identity of the victim and the aim to disenfranchise him from his faith form the heart of the crime. Also, taking advantage of and exploiting an individual’s economic vulnerabilities is widely acknowledged as exploitation, forms of which are often penalised by law. Such cases, therefore, are considered religiously motivated hate crimes since the victim’s religious identity forms the very heart of the crime itself. Under this, another selected secondary category is: Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation, and subtle indoctrination. Under this, the selected tertiary categories are: 'Conversion of minor' and 'Pattern of targeting Hindus'. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting, regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement, and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle, and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to the existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. This incident is a clear case of a hate crime as the Christian perpetrators targeted a large number of Hindus, including men, women and children, for forced religious conversions. Firstly, operating an unauthorised church without the requisite permission created an illegal structure specifically targeting Hindus for conversions. This unlawful base enabled organised religious conversion activities beyond legal oversight, directly interfering with the religious identity of Hindu residents. Secondly, inducements were deliberately offered to vulnerable individuals based on their specific needs, including money provided directly for religious conversion, turning faith into a transactional exchange that denied free, informed choice. Financial incentives clearly reveal calculated exploitation rather than charity, as Christian missionary groups routinely target socially and economically disadvantaged Hindus to advance conversions. By emotionally blackmailing desperate Hindus to abandon their native religion, these perpetrators strip victims of agency and dignity, enforcing coerced shifts to Christianity through religiously motivated pressure. These premeditated acts, rooted in animosity towards Hindu beliefs, undermine the Hindu faith and constitute a clear religiously motivated crime. Thirdly, the victims also included Hindu children. This means the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, and the Christian perpetrators purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the minor victims. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of a religiously motivated hate crime against Hindus. Fourthly, Christian religious texts discovered at the crime scene reveal that victims endured brainwashing and manipulation. Using one faith's scriptures to deliberately target and convert members of another constitutes a direct assault on Hindu beliefs. These calculated acts violate victims' faith, expose organised religious hostility, and mark this as a systematic, religiously motivated offence rather than isolated evangelism. Fifthly, the accused converted not one or two villagers but 245 people in total. They had also faced prior jail time in December 2025 for a similar conversion attempt. This shows a persistent pattern of targeting Hindus through incentives and psychological manipulation, exemplifying a religiously motivated crime aimed at eroding their religious and cultural identity through coercion and unlawful means. Far from isolated incidents, these acts reflect a calculated strategy to systematically profile vulnerable Hindus, erase their native faith, and impose Christianity, disrupting community fabric through repeated exploitation. Sixthly, an organised missionary group backing the perpetrators reveals this was not an isolated forced conversion but a well-funded network targeting large numbers of Hindus. The aim was to strip them of their faith and alter the region's religious demographics, driven by deep animosity towards the Hindu community and their beliefs. These instances of targeted proselytisation activities stem from inherent hostility towards the victims' professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to their faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert, making it a religiously motivated crime against Hindus. Therefore, this case is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker. Disclaimer: In the given reports, three people were mentioned as the perpetrators directly involved in the activities and were in a 14-day judicial remand at the time of reporting. However, we have mentioned the perpetrator count as five (5), including the lawyer in Kanpur and the individual named David from Jhansi, who funded the inducement and was conspiring in the crime. No action has, however, been reported against the two. Media reports state that around 245 Hindus in Karsaha, Kannauj district, Uttar Pradesh, were targeted for conversion, but no gender or age breakdown was provided. For documentation clarity, the Hinduphobia Tracker applies a proportional demographic estimate based on India’s Census 2011 and NFHS-5 (2019–21) rural population data. Accordingly, the 245 victims are estimated as 123 men (50%) and 122 women (50%), reflecting typical rural gender distribution. As age-wise details are absent, victims are further estimated as 172 adults (70%) and 73 children (30%). The Hinduphobia Tracker records the date of an incident based on when a crime occurs, rather than when the media reports it. However, in this case, the media reports do not specify the exact date of when the crime occurred. Therefore, for documentation purposes, 13 January 2026, the media reporting date, serves as the indicative date of the incident.